Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“What is it?” I encourage.
“Drugs,” he blurts quietly as I squeeze as high as my hand can reach.
“Oooh,” I purr. He’s staring at my mouth and licking his lips. This guy couldn’t be any easier to lure into a honeytrap. “What kind of drugs? The fun kind?” I arch an eyebrow.
Wherever this is leading, I hope it gives me an indication of his employer, or I’ll thread it into a confession of Makayla’s murder. I know I’ll get the answers, but I want them for myself. I want to crack this man in two since I’ve been consumed with him for the last two weeks. I want the answers. I need them for my own peace.
“Just stuff. But my boss pays me a lot of money for it. But sometimes he’s intense.”
“Intense is good, isn’t it?” I ask, pretending like I care.
“Not like this guy. He was unhappy with a recent mistake I made, and so I had to do a job I wasn’t comfortable with,” he admits.
Interesting.
“Everything okay? You can tell me, you know. It’s not easy keeping things to yourself,” I push.
He stares at the food between us, and I feel the shift before I see it in his gaze. Has the asshole actually snapped?
“No, it’s not okay. I wouldn’t have had to do it if the drugs just worked on you and shit didn’t start going pear-shaped.”
My entire body freezes. Did he just say what I think he did? No way, surely not. A manic smile slowly creeps onto his lips as I retract my hand and realize he might be cracking far more quickly than I thought he might. The thing with ordinary men is when they’re introduced into this world, not all of them can handle its expectations or its repercussions.
“What do you mean?” I ask, leaning back in my chair now. The Jared who was sitting across from me a moment before is gone. The facade of who or what he might’ve once been vanished.
I didn’t touch my food because I didn’t trust his intention before, and I certainly don’t trust it now. He studies me with curious eyes, and I wonder how I missed it. How I missed his interest in me. Because now when I look at him, I can see it clear as day written all over his face.
“If only it worked on you, and Lester didn’t go missing because of it. You should’ve just gone home with him like a good girl. That was our plan. It was as simple as that. I wish I could’ve seen you then, and we could’ve talked about us.”
“You were the one behind drugging me that night?” I ask quietly, realizing he’s furious with me as if I’m the reason it all went wrong. It takes my breath away. I’d come to terms with what happened, but knowing it wasn’t just Lester but him as well? It makes me feel sick. How many women…? I let the thought trail off.
I always assumed he and Makayla just had a weird relationship, and somehow they made it work. She never really shared many details with me about him, and I never really cared enough to ask. But this asshole has a few screws loose, and not in a fun way. In a way that’s he nurtured himself to take advantage of women and then blame them for him having to face any kind of consequences.
He picks up his knife and fork, cuts into the steak, and puts a piece in his mouth, chewing furiously as if that will calm down his mood.
“I was just trying to create a time for us to speak privately. But every time we were at parties, you were always off with some other guy,” he grits out.
“You were with Makayla,” I remind him. Remember the dead ex-girlfriend you killed?!
“Fuck Makayla. She always got in the way,” he bites back.
I’m gobsmacked by how deranged this guy is, and I wish I had never touched him, even if I was only trying to get answers from him. He’s looking around the restaurant now as if we’re being spied on, and I realize he’s living in a state of paranoia, certain he’s being watched or waiting for his fall when he makes another wrong move.
He’s a desperate man.
And desperate men end up in deeper trouble, or worse, in this world.
His hair is styled back, and he’s wearing a nice suit. I thought at first it was because he was trying to impress me, but maybe this is him uncomfortably living in a world he was never cut out for. And it’s very clear he wasn’t meant for it because I know men who certainly don’t squeal. Especially to impress a woman.
He makes me want to vomit. Not only would I never want him, I don’t even find him attractive.